Jay Spurlock > Jay's Quotes

“An honest answer is like a warm hug.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language--Numbered Edition

“And so we gain hope—not from the darkness of our suffering, not from pat answers in books, but from the God who sees our suffering and shares our pain.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, The Message Remix 2.0: The Bible In contemporary Language

“But gradually we learn something very precious under the tutelage of these wounds. We learn a compassion for others that replaces judging, self-loathing, and the compulsion to find someone to blame. We learn a reverent joy before our wounds that replaces the condemnation of and comparison of ourselves with others that used to fuel our anxiety. We learn that the consummation of self-esteem is self-forgetful abandonment to the Silence of God that gives birth to loving service of all who struggle.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“This is why most people do not stick with a contemplative discipline for very long; we have heard all sorts of talk about contemplation delivering inner peace but when we turn within to seek this peace, we meet inner chaos instead of peace. But at this point it is precisely the meeting of chaos that is salutary, not snorting lines of euphoric peace. The peace will indeed come, but it will be the fruit, not of pushing away distractions, but of meeting thoughts and feelings with stillness instead of commentary. This is the skill we must learn.

The struggle with distractions is not characterized only by afflictive thoughts. Many sincerely devout people never enter the silent land because their attention is so riveted to devotions and words. If there is not a wordy stream of talking to God and asking God for this and that, they feel they are not praying. Obviously this characterizes any relationship to a certain extent. When we are first getting to know someone, the relationship is nurtured by talking. Only with time does the relationship mature in such a way that we can be silent with someone, that silence comes to be seen to be the deeper mode of communion. And so it is with God; our words give way to silence.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“The key is to move from being a victim of thoughts (the commenting, chattering mind) to being their witness (the heart’s stillness) . . . What we have observed of fear can be observed of practically any struggle with afflictive thoughts and feelings. We must move from being a victim of these thoughts to being their witness. Typically we spend many, many years being their victim. We are imprisoned by the chattering mind. Gradually we learn to distinguish the simple thought or emotion from the chatter and we discover an inner stability that grows into the silence of God.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“A helpful image to express this sort of thing is a wheel with spokes centered on a single hub. The hub of the wheel is God; we the spokes. Out on the rim of the wheel the spokes are furthest from one another, but at the center, the hub, the spokes are most united to each other. They are a single meeting in the one hub. The image was used in the early church to say something important about that level of life at which we are one with each other and one with God. The more we journey towards the Center the closer we are both to God and to each other. The problem of feeling isolated from both God and others is overcome in the experience of the Center. This journey into God and the profound meeting of others in the inner ground of silence is a single movement. Exterior isolation is overcome in interior communion.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“But as important as time set aside specifically for prayer, is learning to sit when you are not sitting. By this I mean, whenever the reasoning mind is not required for a specific task, take this as an opportunity to practice. Commuting to and from work, shopping for groceries, showering, shaving, cooking, ironing, gardening. All of these tasks, and others, are perfectly workable with contemplative practice and the principles of common sense. Far from lulling the reasoning mind into some dull blankness, contemplative practice sharpens reason and engenders all manner of creativity. So there is no cause for concern here. The bottom line is this: minimize time given over to chasing thoughts, dramatizing them in grand videos, and believing these videos to be your identity. Otherwise life will pass you by.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“This watchfulness also applies to our tendency to add thought upon thought upon thought. We notice, for example, our anger and how it is quickly followed by another thought that judges it: “I should not be having this angry thought” or “after all these years I still can’t let go of my anger” or “I thought I dealt with this years ago.” This aggregate of thoughts must also be observed, and we must each see for ourselves that part of the reason we can’t let go is that we whip these thoughts and feelings into a great drama that we watch over and over again.

It is not a question of having only acceptable thoughts, but of thoughts thoroughly observed as they appear and disappear in awareness. No thought or feeling should appear in the valley of awareness unobserved.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“The doorway into the silent land is a wound. Silence lays bare this wound. We do not journey far along the spiritual path before we get some sense of the wound of the human condition, and this is precisely why not a few abandon a contemplative practice like meditation as soon as it begins to expose this wound; they move on instead to some spiritual entertainment that will maintain distraction. Perhaps this is why the weak and wounded, who know very well the vulnerability of the human condition, often have an aptitude for discovering silence and can sense the wholeness and healing that ground this wound.

There is something seductive about the contemplative path. “I am going to seduce her and lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:14), says Yahweh to Israel. It is tempting to think it is a superior path. More often, however, the seduction is to think we can use our practice of contemplation as a way to avoid facing our woundedness: if we can just go deeply enough into contemplation, we won’t struggle any longer. It is common enough to find people taking a cosmetic view of contemplation, and then, after considerable time and dedication to contemplative practice, discover that they still have the same old warts and struggles they hoped contemplation would remove or hide. They think that somewhere they must have gone wrong.

Certainly there is deep conversion, healing, and unspeakable wholeness to be discovered along the contemplative path. The paradox, however, is that this healing is revealed when we discover that our wound and the wound of God are one wound.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

“The Enneagram is a tool that awakens our compassion for people just as they are, not the people we wish they would become so our lives would become easier.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

“Once you know the dark side of your personality, simply give God consent to do for you what you’ve never been able to do for yourself, namely, bring meaningful and lasting change to your life.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

“your number is not determined by what you do so much as by why you do it.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Who is telling us about the false self today? Who is even equipped tell us? Many clergy have not figured this out for themselves, since even ministry can be a career decision or an attraction to "religion" more than the result of an encounter with God or themselves. Formal religious status can maintain the false self rather effectively, especially if there are a lot of social payoffs like special respect, titles, salaries, a good self image, or nice costumes. It is no accident that the religious "Pharisees" became the symbolic bad guys in the Jesus story.”
― Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

“As Desmond Tutu told me on a recent trip to Cape Town, “We are only the light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in!”
― Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

“Francis’s starting place was human suffering instead of human sinfulness,”
― Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi

“Growth in love is not an accomplishment but the receipt of a gift.”
― David G. Benner, Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality

“Our wounds are the only thing humbling enough to break our attachment to our false self.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“You can unlock spiritual things only from within.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“When I am not king, then THE Kingdom has its best chance of breaking through.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“You know after any truly initiating experience that you are part of a much bigger whole. Life is not about you henceforward, but you are about life.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“We do not handle suffering. Suffering handles us.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“If we are to progress in the spiritual walk so that the Disciplines are a blessing and not a curse, we must come to the place in our lives where we can lay down the everlasting burden of always needing to manage others.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“Leo Tolstoy observes, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”6”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“God’s discipline has nothing to do with rejection but more to do with refinement.”
― Gary Rohrmayer

“Discipline without direction is drudgery.”
― Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

“Spiritual discipline: any activity I do by direct effort that will help me do what I cannot now do by direct effort.”
― Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can't Control

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

“Getting answers to my questions is not the goal of the spiritual life. Living in the presence of God is the greater call.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life